Global Retailer will modernize ERP and integrate with best-of-breed systems with minimal disruption

BEDFORD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Progress (Nasdaq: PRGS) today announced that Macintosh Retail Group (Euronext Amsterdam Stock Exchange), a large-scale retailer in the lifestyle and fashion sector will deploy the Progress® Pacific™ platform-as-a-service (PaaS) as part of modernization of its key systems to facilitate for its customers - across all channels - the same seamless brand experience. The Netherlands-based retailer is the first major global company to deploy the technology introduced earlier in August.

Macintosh Retail Group (MRG) with powerful retail and product brands has a nationwide coverage in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg and United Kingdom under the Brantano, Dolcis, Jones Bootmaker, Manfield, Invito, Scapino, PRO 0031, Steve Madden, Intreza and Kwantum names (approximately 1,000 stores). Specific to MRG is its cross-channel approach to clients by combining offline and online retail concepts with strong supply chain management and excellent back-office facilities and systems. Ordinarily MRG’s customer centric cross-channel approach would require an overhaul of almost all existing ICT systems, such as ERP (enterprise resource planning), point of sale, logistics and the website’s back-end systems, none of which had been originally designed with cross-channel capabilities. However, MRG opted instead to modernize its existing ERP system using the Progress Pacific platform, comprised of Progress Rollbase®, Progress OpenEdge® 11.3, Progress OpenEdge BPM and Progress Corticon® products, for faster time-to-market and to avoid the risk of a complete rebuild.

This modernization project will be completed by working closely with Progress professional service teams and an offshore development team. Using its OpenEdge application development, OpenEdge BPM and Progress Corticon solutions for business process and business rules management, Progress will be able to upgrade the existing ERP system, enabling it to seamlessly connect the physical stores, online shops and marketplaces with the back-office, customer service and warehouse in real-time. As a result the Progress Pacific Platform - hosted in a private cloud - will allow, MRG to provide the customer with a unified experience across all channels.

Customer Quotes:

Kris De Moor, group ICT director at Macintosh Retail Group said: “We are strengthening our market position in the fashion and lifestyle sectors and needed a solution that provided minimal disruption while enabling us to modernize and stay one step ahead of competition. The Progress Pacific platform allowed us to develop new applications that work perfectly with our current infrastructure. A successful cross-channel strategy requires an integrated ICT infrastructure and so we were looking for a reliable and cost effective solution to renew our ERP system. We are pleased that Progress is assisting us to realise our cross-channel strategy within a short period of time.”

“The retail sector is highly competitive and changing constantly. Today’s retailers and distributors must be able to quickly anticipate developments if they are to stay ahead. This requires technology that seamlessly integrates processes and data, which is exactly the strength of the Progress Pacific platform and technologies. Macintosh Retail Group is using this technology to support strong online and offline shop formats that enable it to extend its leadership position.”

About Macintosh Retail Group

Macintosh Retail Group is a large-scale non-food retailer listed on the Euronext Amsterdam Stock Exchange, specialised in the distribution of consumer products and services in the sectors Living and Fashion. Customers are being served online and in almost 1,000 shops. Additional information about Macintosh Retail Group is available at http://www.macintosh.nl/en/.

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About Progress Software Corporation

Progress Software Corporation (Nasdaq: PRGS) is a global software company that simplifies the development, deployment and management of business applications on-premise or in the cloud, on any platform or device, to any data source, with enhanced performance, minimal IT complexity and low total cost of ownership. Progress Software can be reached at www.progress.com or 1-781-280-4000.

Progress and Pacific are trademarks or registered trademarks of Progress Software Corporation or one of its subsidiaries or affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. Any other names contained herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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